Antalya's Global Fortune
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Cooperation [f]or Competition: Antalya’s Global Fortune Reyhan VARLI-GÖRK Helga RITTERSBERGER-TILIÇ Introduction The main goal of this paper is to discuss inter-linkages and hierarchical relations of Antalya Metropolitan Municipality with major cities especially with Istanbul during the culture- based urban restructuring process experienced in the (neo-liberal governance) period 2004–2009. With regard to this definitive aim, this study is concerned with the underlying relation between ‗growth machine‘ alliance in Antalya and global players in İstanbul, as well as this relation‘s impact on the process of ‗restructuring‘ Antalya specifically into a ‗city of culture‘. The major argument of this paper is that Istanbul distinctly influences the various subfields of economy in Antalya and has predominated culture, art and even municipal administration. In short, Antalya draws comparisons between itself and Istanbul, sees Istanbul as an example, mimics Istanbul but does not compete with it; in this sense, Antalya is not a competitive city but a complementary city to Istanbul. In respect to the overall structure of the study; the first part is to discuss some of the conceptual issues on urban restructuring along with the methodology devised for gathering the empirical data. The second part illustrates the development of tourism industry as the major economic field in Antalya with some reference to its historical geography. The third part provides details on complementary strategies of the growth oriented local alliance to cope with the the dead end of mass tourism in Antalya during the neoliberal governance between 2004 and 2009. In the final section, Antalya‘s cooperation with İstanbul is critically discussed. Conceptual Frame and Methodology Since the term restructuring is the system‘s attempt to resolve a crisis, it implies some shifts in policies concerning governance, planning, culture and economics in a specific geographical location of production and consumption in the capitalist mode. A full grasp of the present problems is only possible through an analysis of urban politics and urban policies by exploring these shifts. Since the early 1990s, the world has witnessed a global scale economic restructuring; a shift from economic to urban restructuring. First of all, Marxian theory of urban political economy is preeminently a theory of crisis. As capitalism struggles to create a physical landscape appropriate to its needs and purposes (both in production Assist. Prof. Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Çankırı Karatekin University, Çankırı [email protected], [email protected] Assoc. Prof. Deapartment of Sociology, Middle East Technical University, Ankara. [email protected] 1 and consumption) the most fundamental inquiry was regarding the clarification of the major reason underlying the process of restructuring Antalya. In other word, it focuses on the major crisis with which Antalya is faced and the attempts to resolve it through urban restructuring. In order to integrate growth coalition‘s perspective into the analyis, in addition to the critical review of the urban restructuring, a field research had been conducted in Antalya (2006- 2010). Various qualitative research methods were used to collect data; individual interviews were conducted (representatives of different interest groups like bureaucrats, local politicians, entrepreneurs, representatives of NGOs, etc.); group interviews of academics were realized; life history accounts (memoirs) were collected; and the news on Antalya in local newspapers were systematically analyzed. During the field research twenty six (26) interviews were applied on an institutional basis and two interviews on an individual basis. In this study, empirical data is derived from the transcriptions of twelve (12) interviews out of total twenty eight (28) interviews. The ‗restructuring‘ process becomes clearer when viewed through the lens of these interviews. During the restructuring process, since the major strategies of the growth alliance were geared towards transforming Antalya into a ‗city of culture‘. The very concept ‗city of culture‘ in urban studies literature revolves around the issues regarding the growth oriented development strategies of cities competing with other cities for financial and capital investment. A varying set of agents comprising the ‗growth coalition‘, whom Logan and Molotch (1987) define as the ‗rentier‘ class, are those centering on developers, realtors, and banks, who have an interest in the exchange of land and property. Rentiers are supported by a number of auxiliary players in the field including institutions like the media, universities, utilities, professional sports franchises, chambers of commerce and the like. Answering the primary questions, ―Is there an overarching or elite organization in Antalya?‖ and ―How active are these organizations in the city?‖, the first finding of this study is that the Antalya Greater Municipality (AGM) is the leading agency in the formation of a pro- growth coalition in Antalya with endless support from Antalya Ticaret ve Sanayi Odası (ATSO, the Antalya Chamber of Commerce and Industry) as the second most important agent. As observed in news in the newspapers, magazines and broadcasts on TV, from the first day of the municipal election in 2004, both the local and the national media have supported economic development efforts of the ‗growth machine‘ alliance in Antalya. The research also showed that the major crisis in Antalya is ‗the declining prices attached to Antalya‘s tourism services and products in the global market‘. Thus, the growth alliance sought strategies to increase the value of the tourism services and products offered in Antalya. In this sense, five major agency groups can be defined, agencies that have a vested interest in the process of restructuring Antalya; and a 2 potential opposition group. The pro-growth coalition brings together the five major groups; namely, the state, local government (governor, mayors and managers), capitalist entrepreneurs in any field, NGOs (Chambers of Commerce, Architects, Planners), and cultural and academic institutions. It is also argued that the potential oppositions may come from the representatives of the artists and the intellectuals in Antalya (Antalyalite Intelligentsia). During the the culture-based urban restructuring process experienced in Antalya between 2004 and 2009, it is observed that the AGM has put the neoliberal urban governance into practice. In the neoliberal view, the ―preferred form of governance is that of the ‗public-private partnership‘ in which state and key business interests collaborate closely together to coordinate their activities around the aim of enhancing capital accumulation‖ (Harvey, 2006: 27). For Harvey, in the neoliberal state, competition between—individuals, firms, and territorial entities (cities, regions, nations, regional groupings)—is deemed to be a primary virtue. Replacing the concept of the competitive city for creative purposes, especially to attract the global capital, de Roo (2007) introduces the oncept of the ―complementary city‖, by which he suggests a collaboration of agencies in the specific fields of two cities to reverse the money flow from the periphery to the center. With this concept, de Roo proposes a planning model for cities at the peripheries to complement the global projects developed by cities occupying positions of higher rank within the hierarchy of world cities. A Short Historical Geography Antalya is a city on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. Its climate, nature, tourism investment possibilities and ever-increasing influx of migrants from other parts of Turkey have made Antalya one of the most rapidly developing cities in Turkey, and it is also the seventh most crowded city with a population around 1,100,000. Antalya is the second in Turkey in terms of rapid population growth rate, due to migration for nearly 40 years (Kıvran and Uysal, 1992: 37; Güçlü-Özen, 2002: 45). Because of its quiet atmosphere and short winter seasons, the city has been a destination for retirees from EU countries, too, especially from Germany, Austria and Holland and England since the beginning of the 1980s, and from Russia, the Ukraine, and the countries in the northern Caucasus since the beginning of the 1990s. Antalya has never been a sizeable urban settlement since ancient times till the midst of the twentieth century. Although Antalya was famous for malaria during the Ottoman period, since the beginning of 1940s it has become the center of attraction and fascination with its newly constructed parks, boulevards by the co-operation of government and the people in Antalya (Va‘la Nureddin, 1944: 8). 3 Rather than an industrial city, Antalya brings to one‘s mind a destination for tourism, tourism investment, or holidays. The region appeals to both foreign and Turkish tourism investors because of its historical treasures and natural beauty with its untouched shores and translucent sea (Kıvran and Uysal, 1992: 52). In the early 1980s, the central government passed a law permitting the 49-99 year leasing of and construction on the forest land along the coastal line, which has resulted in a great deal of tourism investment both in the city and along the 640 km shoreline in the form of hundreds of licensed establishments built to date. The opening of these establishments dramatically changed the whole economic, social, and cultural structure. Toward the 1960s, the establishment of tourism industry was